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The hardware test went, less painfully than I anticipated.
Still a lot of sleepless nights ahead, but I think it will come together. The mapping is ongoing. The most important things that I want to achieve before leaving to go to Worlds on Friday are:
1. Pseudo code (Finished by Wednesday night)
2. Review the footage from hardware test on Tuesday (Wednesday night)
3. Record the ambient noise inside the studio – there is already a lot going on there… (Thursday morning)
4. Video of choreography (Thursday night) → email to sound designer before leaving
5. Dramatury – write the script to give to the performers to rehearse (by Wednesday night)
6. Contact Gary – Public performance (Wednesday)
7. Pick up the 2nd digitizer (thursday morning)

Sound Parameters
– Cut off?
– What other filters to use?
– Is an organ or held note the right solution for a sound that will be mapped to the performers?

THE SKETCH
– Need the sketch to have 2 ORIGINS

Visual Parameters
1a) Split probability → More splitProb = more vulnerability
1b) Stroke Weight → If splitProb is HIGH then strokeWeight is LOW
→ If splitProb is LOW then strokeWeight is HIGH
1c) Split Angle

2a) DistThresh – this is the distance that 2 points will join; higher the number, the larger distance will be connected (i.e. higher = more lines will be drawn), and the lower, the shorter

3a) frameCount %

4a) Length of PVector

Notes from the presentation to Simon and Tom:ON SOUND:
– flow, opening
– less musical
– sound of a rolling wave could work much better.
– simple, natural with a tone to it (manipulation of frequencies) → opening/ closing filter
rethink percussion
– does reyne know how to use abletonlive??
– email simon for samples of extended chords from Beethoven symphonies extended
– Darwinian evolution (the knife album from lachlan)
– granular effects like the cracking
– the speed of the vector will be very important
– how long is the delay between the action and response in the system??
– Look into getting a Perspex mirror instead of a glass on – lighter and less dangerous to move/ mount
– Fading in sketch should decrease as the intensity of the performance increases (as with the sound)

– Carry out the installation to finalise stage design.
– Where will the Examiner/s be placed? -elevated? on a ladder? ground level?
– Contact Selena to find out where my space is for the End of Year Show
– email Tara about the A1 photographic studio

– There was issues with the live demo and blog detection in the studio – could 4 light sources be the solution to properly light the area?
– Look up CreateDigitalMotion.com, Peter Kirn

– “Where is the subjectivity coming from?”
– “Is the environment a representation of the “shared mental space”?

– Look into other possibilities apart from Processing. For example ISADORA as the software interface tool. Could be Plan B and use pre-created video from Processing mapped onto motion detection/ blob detection of isadora.

PRESENTATION 2 – Where I’m at
BLUETOOTHSuccess
– Able to connect to the editor
– Able to using the “BluetoothDesktop” library together with the Serial library without my machine crashing

Failures
– Unable to view the data in processing

Next step
– In correspondence with Tech Support

MIDISuccess
– Able to take some data from the sensor (only one stream)
– The data is affect by the acceleration of a technique. It will spike (backwards) to 1 when a jolting move is performed and oscillate between around 30 to 53 when rhythmic actions are being performed.
– It is very easy to plug in the variables of the sensor into applicable sketches once the data is accessible in Processing!

Fail
– Unable to connect to the editor
– Unable to read 3 streams of data in Processing

Next Step
– Transferring more than 1 stream of data into Processing into a sketch
– How to convert Bluetooth data into MIDI data –> Processing the values from

Milestones before the next presentationProgramming
– Solution for the conversion of Bluetooth to MIDI data
– Integration of Blob detection with Perlin Noise sketch
– Overall the joining of elements into one sketch to work from

Sound design
– Understand how and what sound will be heard through the channels
– Finalise the system that will be used for the examination

Paper
– Full draft paper is due on Thursday 26 August
– Correct all my references and footnote citations

Here is the .pdf of my presentation slides (basically a summary of my blog posts from july 26 onwards)

Feedback and thoughts from Will and Petra…
***Think about the conclusion of the work… after 2-4 minutes of watching the interaction…
– Will the work/ performance have a resolution? Does it need one?
– After having experienced the unraveling of the “poetry” within a fight, what will be the final reflection for the audience?

– What is it that I am really representing?
–> It is something bigger than karate/ kumite itself. It is something of the higher consciousness that karate taps into… develop this within my paper.
– What is doing in representing subjective states through expressions in materiality… Has it been done in this way before?
–> Look further into other artists’ work to clearly understand the the similarities and differences

– The visualisation, as the layers of the drawing fade into the background, it will eventually only be expressing the “effect” and no longer “cause and effect”.
– Could I think of the system (the space and the performers) as a sort of ecology… not really a hierarchy, more like symbiosis? autopoeisis?
– Positive feedback on the visual style so far… keep going down this thread
– Think about each state and it’s representation as a “new crack”… after a while, what will the resulting generative cracks represent
– Textures could be a good anchor for audiences to make the link between the destruction of the material and the exchange of pressure and control/ the space in between the performers.

– Make testing with BOTH performers a priority for the coming weeks – the interaction of BOTH sensors could dramatically change the way I program the final work.
– Testing with both players present will be totally different to carrying out testing only on myself
– Lock in the 2nd performer ASAP
– Be sure to be wary of the Week 7 Milestone that I have scheduled for myself for choreography

– Make it a priority to post comments on forums, and not just research what others have done re: taking the data from i-CubeX editor into processing… if there is no response available and if I don’t hear back on my own posts, then the answer I am looking for, may not be available (although, I think the answer is out there.. my googling may not be efficient enough!)

CONCEPT RECAP
– The work is a digital performance that utilises new media technology, specifically biosensory data that will ask questions about the mind and body when it is subjected to physical conflict in the context of kumite or sparring within karate.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT
[0] Recap previous annotation

[1] Audio annotated fight
– At 1:02 this representation I think fits best with the visual, in a way that the audience would best be able to connect to

– SILENCE
→ the use of silence as a means of communication
What does silence signify?
– Silence can be interpreted as positive or negative
– It can mean disagreement, or disconnectedness or connection and appreciation
Normally, it suggests a LACK of communication. But silence is also used as TOTAL communication
Speech patterns such as STUTTERING, or HESITATION.

Performative/ Relation to the audience or to the space
Magic
Restriction
Dismantled
Autopoetic
Radiation

→ These words are key in dealing algorithmically with sensation and tactility of the interface

[3] REFLECTIONS after fighting, their descriptions of pressure states, and control states
[4.1] Putting what the athletes described into programming
[4.2] Dealing algorithmically with sensation and decision making
[5] sketches of how I see the performance space
[6] the live performance will be carried out on the opening night of the end of year exhibition and then the work will become a video installation for the remainder of time.

Anna Munster – Materializing New Media
p.11 → metaphor of narrative and the construction of natural history
p.11 → “new digital biology as the next evolutionary stage, one that will surpass organic human biology”
p.12 → “Reconsider our understanding of humans as agents who control both the natural and artificial worlds.
p.13 → “Treat the materiality of technologies as open-ended propositions continually in a process of being made and unmade.
p. 22 → “emerging digital bodies”
→ “Folds of the body and information through proximity and distance that simultaneously mark our relations to others within global information culture.”

– Energy radiating from a central point/ blob into a sort of particle web
– Energy can be positive or negative (attraction or repulsion)
– A tactile example would be the work of Cai Guo Qiang, who often uses fireworks or gunpowder on canvas or on other materials to produce his paintings:

— I want to convey a sense of urgency and release in the visuals and audio to illustrate this result of mental pressure

HARDWARE DEVELOPMENT
[1] Where I’m at with the sensors
[2] workshop questions – set up + software, and prepare to troubleshoot
[3] hardware requirements for the final performance → will know more once the location is scouted[4] Target: Have my set up and ALL my questions for troubleshooting ready for the i-CubeX workshop that will take place on June 11.

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT
[1] Processing Prototyping (Demo)
–> some sketches in processing to demonstrate basic fundamentals of my concept.
– colorweb – Illustrates the synthesis of sounds to generate something new
– particleweb – giving an aesthetic to the memory of the space. Ideally to be seen from a birds-eye view, the disturbance of the web is triggered by an event during the engagement of the performers e.g. breaching the a distance threashold or both their heart rates reaching over 180bpm, indicating high adrenalin or anxiety
– test1 – illustrates 2 masses, similar to the 2 performers and the attraction or repulsion of particles that surround them, these particles could be analagous to some sort of energy field, or an indication of where one performer’s space ends and the other’s begins, or the constant forces that orbit them as they move in the space.
(Attraction)
(Repulsion)

Idea development resulting from the preparation for my preparation:
1. Explorations in creating sculptural and physical sound (Murder of crows)
2. How sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space? (40 part motet)
3. Center around the theme of physicality and human control/ discontrol in relation with technology (sensorband)
4. A 3-way conversation modulating sonic and luminous pulse and flow (SSS)
5. … To see if it is possible to transcribe this “struggle” between the performers – by interpreting the data from the proximity and heartbeat sensor (for now) and mapping the dramatic topology of physical and psychological relationships/ control/ pressure that occur during kumite (jeu kumite proposal)

A quick summary of the feedback from Tom and Ross from Monday afternoon’s presentation:

– Would it be beneficial to create a dictionary of symbols for me as well as for the audience?
– Beware of “double translation”

– Which is the most essential part of the model?

– Look into directional sound controlling devices used by marketing and at concerts. These are like beams of sound that can be accurately targeted so that an individual’s position will determine exactly what the system wishes them to hear.

– What is the set up of the performance space and where will be audience experience the performance?

– The idea of call and response – a dialogue between the players and sound from the environment
– Will this dialogue reveal what is “un-set” in the system – what is not pre-defined in the rules of kumite

– What is “un-said”?
– What way does the system need to be spatialised?

– What are the deliverables?
[a] real-time performance to take place at the end of year exhibition
[b] multimedia documentation of the process
[c] multimedia documentation of the final work